By Georgia Osten
We bought our beach house in February or March of 2007. We were still working, no thoughts of retirement, and we could only come down on weekends. I remember leaving work on a Friday, picking up Ruby and heading down. First thing Ruby and I would do is jump in the golf cart and head down to the beach to walk in the water and see what the tides had washed in during the week. Our beach house sits back a ways, probably 5th row, we couldn’t see the beach from the house, but we could hear the water. Oh how we would love to sit out on the deck and watch the golf carts going past our house, headed down to the beach.
Then, Hurricane Ike hit in September of 2008, we couldn’t wait until they would let us come onto the peninsula to see what toll the storm had ravished on our precious house. It was devastating, one whole corner was wiped out where the inside stairs led to our totally built in downstairs where there were no walls, no furniture, nothing. All the Christmas decorations from 40 years washed away and the leather sofa I had begged my son to bring down in his pickup truck. The old structure had to come down and we had to rebuild, it took forever … we’d “camp out” in our house, no running water, nowhere to cook, we’d throw the mattress down on the floor, go to The Big Store to brush our teeth and use the restroom, we were in Heaven!
We’ve become spoiled since the storm, with views of the water and beach where once houses stood. Our views are quickly getting gobbled up though, there’s a monster being built, 60 pilings! That’s okay, we still have a sliver here and there between the houses where we can get a glimpse of the beach. We try to imagine that “there’s no way this little view will be taken from us.” We did get spoiled, we didn’t have a view before and we were happy as ever … WOW, we are so blessed to have this little slice of Heaven!
GO’s Sand Bucket is only one beach bum’s journal of life at the beach, probably something each of you can relate to. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts, visions and/or feelings of just exactly what the beach means to you.
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